The present invention relates generally to computers and, more particularly, to system and methods for facilitating delivery of user-relevant information to desktop application software.
The first personal computers were largely stand-alone units with no direct connection to other computers or computer networks. Data exchanges between computers were mainly accomplished by exchanging magnetic or optical media such as floppy disks. Over time, more and more computers were connected to each other using Local Area Networks or “LANs.” In both cases, maintaining security and controlling what information a user of a personal computer can access was relatively simple because the overall computing environment was limited and clearly defined.
With the ever-increasing popularity of the Internet, particularly the World Wide Web (“Web”) portion of the Internet, however, more and more personal computers are connected to larger networks. Providing access to vast stores of information, the Internet is typically accessed by users through Web “browsers” (e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer™ or Netscape Navigator™) or other “Internet applications.” Browsers and other Internet applications include the ability to access a URL (Universal Resource Locator) or “Web” site. The explosive growth of the Internet had a dramatic effect on the LANs of many businesses and other organizations. More and more employees need direct access through their corporate LAN to the Internet in order to facilitate research, competitive analysis, communication between branch offices, and send e-mail, to name just a few.
Each URL is used to specify the location of a file held on a remote machine and is composed of several distinct components. For example, the URL of http://host/file.html includes three distinct components. The first component, http, specifies the protocol (here, “HTTP” or HyperText Transport Protocol) that is to be used to access the target file. Other access protocols can be specified by a URL. For example, the URL of ftp://ftp.starfish.com/pub/docs/samples specifies access to files via “FTP” (File Transfer Protocol). This specifies a link for accessing the file directory docs/samples on the machine ftp.starfish.com.
The second component, host, indicates the name of the remote machine; this can be expressed as either a symbol name (e.g., starfish.com) or a numeric IP (Internet Protocol) address such as 123.200.1.1. The final component, file.html, provides the path name of the target file—that is, the file which the hypertext link is to be made. The file is referenced relative to the base directory in which Web pages are held; the location of this directory is specified by the person who has set up the Web server (i.e., “Webmaster”).
The majority of content available on the Internet is represented in “HTML” documents which, in turn, are read or accessed by Web browsers. In particular, the HTML or Hypertext Markup Language is an ASCII text-based, script-like language used to create the documents for the World Wide Web. Although most browsers will display any document that is written in plain text, HTML documents afford several advantages. In particular, HTML documents may include rich formatting and graphics, as well as hypertext links or “hyperlinks” to other documents.
Markup languages, such as HTML, are used to describe the structure of the document. HTML is used to mark various elements in a document, including headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, and the like. To achieve this, an HTML document includes formatting commands or “tags” embedded within the text of the document which serve as commands to a browser. Here, HTML tags mark the elements of a file for browsers. Elements can contain plain text, other elements, or both. The browser reading the document interprets these markup tags or commands to help format the document for subsequent display to a user. The browser thus displays the document with regard to features that the viewer selects either explicitly or implicitly. Factors affecting the layout and presentation include, for instance, the markup tags used, the physical page width available, and the fonts used to display the text.
The design of HTML tags is relatively simple. Individual HTML tags begin with a < (“less than”) character and end with a > (“greater than”) character, such as <title> which serves to identify text which follows as the title of a document. HTML tags are not case-sensitive (with the exception of HTML escape sequences) and are often used in symmetric pairs, with the final tag indicated by the inclusion of a / (slash) character. For instance, the <title> tag represents a beginning tag which would be paired with a </title> ending tag. These paired commands would thus be applied to the text contained within the beginning and ending commands, such as <title> My Sample Title </title>. The <B> tag, on the other hand, informs browsers that the text which follows is to be in bold type. This bolding is turned off by the inverse markup tag </B>. In contrast to these paired or “container” tags, separator tags are used unpaired. For example, the command <br> is employed by itself to insert a line break. Browsers generally ignore extra spaces and new lines between words and markup tags when reading the document. In other words, “white space” characters, such as tabs, spaces, and new line characters, are generally ignored in HTML. Leaving a blank line in one's document, for instance, generally does not create a blank line when the document is displayed in a browser, unless one uses the “preformatted” HTML tag (<pre> and </pre>). Finally, not all tags are supported by all Web browsers. If a browser does not support a tag, it (usually) just ignores it.
Since the advent of the Internet, most companies have established a primary goal of maintaining a close one-to-one relationship with their customers through use of a company Web site—that is, a place on the Web where customers can ask questions about the company's products, read news pertaining to those products (e.g., new features/updates), or even shop for accessories for the company's products. Typically, in order to get one's customers attention, a company would expand a fair amount of effort trying to convince its customers to come to its Web site or company “portal.” The approach is problematic, however.
Just as there are only so many (manageable) channels on a television, there is, similarly, a limited number of places that people will think to go on the Internet. The large, well-known Web sites—the “Yahoos” and the “Excites” of the online world—have substantial brand-name recognition and are, therefore, often the default portals (e.g., “home” page) set by users in their browsers. These are places that people will think of to go. Trying to get customers to change their “home” pages to a product-specific Web site is a particularly difficult problem, however. Users would instead prefer to have their browsers go to a more-generic site as a home page. Despite the challenges posed by this problem, there exists great interest in finding a way to bring a company's portal to the desktop of its customers.